What a whirlwind of a season it has been! I am more than ready to be cozy for the fall, but ATX weather has other ideas, and technically summer doesn’t end until September 22nd. I’ve recently been taking a lot of late evening walks to savor the last few balmy nights…but knowing Texas, we will have plenty more balmy nights until October at least. Mostly I was taking more walks to incorporate some kind of physical activity as I was going insane from reading about recent events, as well as recently recovering from COVID (for the first time ever)…thankfully I am all better!
First of all, ATX friends, if you haven’t *already* tried everything on Plow Bao‘s menu, you are missing out on Joyce Ni’s blessings, and you must get there ASAP before they close this Saturday (August 20th). Attend their farewell party (details at the end of this post) & order everything!
Joyce is a dear friend to me, and while that may make me biased, I genuinely appreciate her blend of veganized traditional recipes from her Chinese grandmother, with fun fusion rotations, such as her cheeseburger shu mai last month–incredible. While it can be difficult to find a dim sum experience as a vegan (unless you’re in Taiwan), Joyce’s truck certainly scratches that itch! Each dish is made with care, and the fusion dishes are not just fusion for trendiness’ sake, but truly inspired by Joyce’s Chinese heritage and American/Texan influences. Joyce’s nourishing friendship aside, here are the top dishes I will personally pine for the most in Plow Bao’s absence. These are in no particular order–however, the bao tacos are limited to Tuesday’s, and today is the LAST bao taco Tuesday. So, get to it!
Pro tip: Plow Bao is available for ordering in person or online–if ordering online, please use their square site instead of UberEats if you want to avoid extra costs & support/tip the team!
Last weekend, I had the chance to attend a wonderful menu preview dinner at V Eats Modern Vegan–Troy Gardner’s new vegan restaurant at Trinity Groves in Dallas. The event was hosted by none other than my friends The Harvest Hands. Thank you, Courtney and Zak, for inviting me to this stellar menu tasting!
Going out and doing things on the weekend is a rare occurrence for me, now that I’m consumed with grad school life. However, last weekend, I made sure to make time to attend another event hosted by my dear friends, The Harvest Hands, in collaboration with Living Life Fresh and Compassionate Collective Co. It was such a delight to spend the evening with some of my favorite people, and I met some new people too, including Madeline Alcott (Petit Vour)!
My friend Veronica Rouly (Cherries Roses Chains) and I went together as galentines! Veronica is a passionate YouTuber and fellow vegan foodie. So as you can imagine, we had a great time obsessing over all the food and discussing future plans for online content collaboration! Continue reading →
I almost didn’t finish writing this post because I found myself critiquing every flaw in my 2015 best nine photos on Instagram–it was starting to read like a list of my 2015 worst nine. Eek! However, one of my personal resolutions is to accept my mistakes and go forward from the experiences, instead of obsessing, and to focus on the positive!
My 2015 best nine was all photos of food, which came as no surprise to me. Since I get asked about my photo process pretty often, I decided to share some notes about my photo set ups and styling for each of my top nine photos. I don’t claim to be an expert and there’s always room for improvement, but hopefully these notes will be useful to somebody out there! 🙂 Continue reading →
The holidays aren’t complete without sibling disagreements about silly things, like what kind of Christmas music to listen to…
Anna: What is this? Is this even a Christmas song??
Me: Well, most of the songs on this playlist aren’t classic Christmas songs, but I really like them because they capture the essence of Christmas for me…
Anna: Ann, I want ACTUAL Christmas songs, not this indie nonsense!
Me: But these are so dreamy…! Ok, fine.
Anna: Ooh, Silent Night, something I recognize!
Me: Oh yes! But it’s in German…
Anna *shaking her head*: Ann, PLEASE!
This exchange with my sister made us both laugh and resulted in a playlist with songs we both like…I hope you enjoy it.
For me, Christmas season is a time to cherish with loved ones, and a time for personal spiritual reflection. Whatever you celebrate, I hope you’re making the best of the holidays!
Since it’s Christmas Eve, I figure today is a good day to share my favorite outtakes from a dreamy recipe shoot I did for Definition Fitness Magazine’s winter issue. For the issue, I developed some unique winter drink recipes (not your average hot chocolate). Check them out below–I had a blast styling and shooting these! I’ve been wanting to share them with you for a while.
Finally, I’m sharing the highlights from this Dallas vegan pop up event that I went to back in November! My apologies for posting this so late–grad school has been my only priority these past few months. My finals ended last week and I still don’t feel caught up on rest yet. But enough about my life as a design student–let’s talk about this amazing event!
lots of flowers and leaves
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all the delicious food
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sweet, inspiring people
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cozy, lovely atmosphere at Common Desk
Last week on Instagram for #VeganMofo, I shared a shot with my favorite late summer food: fresh, ripe peaches. It was the aftermath of the recipe I’m about to share with you.
I celebrated the end of summer with this sweet and savory pizza, made with all seasonal ingredients. Gather up your very last summer peaches and some basil from the garden! Continue reading →
plantcrush 